Space Events

Perseid Meteor Shower

Every 133 years or so, the massive Swift-Tuttle comet careens through our solar system at 150 times the speed of sound, spreading a dirty trail of ice, dust and sundry space schmutz behind it. This weekend, Earth will do its part to clean up that interstellar mess during an annual event we call the Perseid meteor shower.

The Perseids occur every year from mid-July to late August, when Earth passes through the wide band of debris left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle's various visits to our part of the galaxy. Each time the comet swings by (most recently in 1992), it drops trillions of tiny pieces of itself into our inner solar system. Most of these little specks of metal and stone are as small as grains of sand, but that doesn't prevent them from flashing across the night sky when they collide with Earth's atmosphere at about 133,200 mph (214,365 km/h).

The resultis one of the most dazzling meteor showers of the year — and the best time to watch it is this weekend. On Sunday night (Aug. 12) and into early Monday morning (Aug. 13), Earth will push through the densest band of the Swift-Tuttle debris cloud that our planet has access to.